Welcome to June, friends! As discussed in my last post , I am embarking on a month-long journey with the goal of exploring opportunities for self-love. Simple, yes, but hopefully effective. Details are as follows: Yes, I made this myself, and I'm really proud of it. Go me! For my purposes, I'll be posting on my Instagram  which also auto-posts to my Twitter . I'll also be using the #selfloveJune hashtag as mentioned above, so if you want to participate, go ahead and use it along with me! The goal here is to force me to look at myself and my physical form positively. I may not ever grace the cover of a fashion magazine, but I am beautiful nonetheless. And it's time I work towards believing  that as opposed to simply saying it. So who's with me? Feel free to share your insta, twitter, or whatever platform you'll be using in the comments here so we can all follow each other! Peace. Stef.

by Tim Mossholder via Pexels Hi everyone. I'm aging myself a bit here, but bear with me. You all remember the movie Bridget Jones, right? Of course you do. My reader demographic is definitely in the age bracket to be intimately familiar with the movie. In the event that you don't, Bridget Jones Diary is a novel-turned-movie written by Helen Fielding, and the titular character is played by Renee Zellwegger. It and its sequels chronicle the trials and tribulations of Bridget as she navigates being a 30-something in London with a mother who is constantly reminding her that she's running out of time to get married and have babies. She's always too something - too fat, too old, too silly, etc. - to land someone. She also has horrendous taste in men. That is until she strikes gold. She wears a miniskirt to work, and her charming, handsome boss notices and comments, stoking the flames of a would-be romance. Too bad he's a serial cheater and all-around prick. It really do

Happy Friday, all! Getting in the creative mindset today by doing another one of the lovely Jimmie Writes  writing prompts. The guidelines, for fun and challenge, should you choose to accept them are as follows: Using the photo below as inspiration, write something. 250 words shall be your limit and the limit of your words shall be 250. Any style. Any Genre. Post your story on your own web place then post the link here so we may ooh and aah over it with great appreciation. If you don't have your own web place, post your story here, but please keep to the 250-word limit. And get yourself a web place. Own your work! No smashing the stories. We are not here to crush each other. We are here to help each other fly as best we can. That includes your own story. We are all learning and getting better. This is part of it. Let's goooooo!

  Photo by  Burst  from  Pexels One of the (many) things that I hate about depression is that it is so isolating. And in the middle of a pandemic? Well... loneliness abounds. Granted, I've fared better than most in this regard since I am about as introverted as they come. But being introverted doesn't mean I don't like being social, y'know?  I readily admit that I lean heavily toward hermit-dom, but some experiences (e.g. going to see a movie, visiting a new place, etc.) are just better  when you have someone to share it with. And that's what I miss. I miss having my boyfriend come from the Chattanooga area every few weeks to visit. I miss calling up my friends to see if they want to go see a movie or have dinner somewhere. I miss sitting in a cafe with my writing pals knocking out thousands of words in a few hours of communal sprints. I miss performing in community theatre. Unfortunately, the current state of things paired with my persistent depressive disorder lea